Resolved, that the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation--the first Flag Act passed in 1777

This resolution for a national union may seem quaint since the American flag has developed into a 50-star constellation, and the history of American Studies has gone through dramatic changes in tandem with the historical changes of the status of the US. American Studies predominantly centered on the history of that constellation has recently been "decentralize[d]" to explore the histories of those orbiting the American constellation. For one, transnationalism was among the recent theoretical efforts to reconfigure and remap American Studies. However, American Studies still remains very much within the bounds of a single constellation centering on the US. Boldly hypothesizing that the American constellation and other national constellations are orbiting one another (or is it the American constellation orbiting other national constellations?), we propose to re-center American Studies on separate, parallel and/or intertwined histories of the diverse constellations. To initiate this re-centering, we invite scholars from all over our earthly galaxy to engage in center-less, multi-directional exchanges. The constellations of American Studies thus created will, to borrow Walter Benjamin's vision, configure "moments of the past into a shape with present meaning" and illuminate changes for the trans-constellational future of American Studies. Papers on any local and global and/or traditional and non-traditional aspects of American Studies are welcome. We especially welcome theorization of multi-directional, trans-constellational approaches to American Studies.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Comparative American Studies

Cultural and institutional history of American Studies

Incommensurable contemporaneity in American Studies

The Atlantic, the Pacific, and Intra-American migratory networks

Multidirectional flow of people, culture, and capital across borders

The American presence in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas

Multiculturalism, cross-culturality, and transnationalism

Racial, ethnic, and diasporic identities

Constructing Americanness

Statement of the IASA Executive Council issued on August 27, 2014:

The Executive Council of the International American Studies Association, whose members are spread over five continents, appeals to the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Phyllis Wise, to reconsider her decision to rescind the offer of a tenured faculty position in American Indian Studies to Professor Steven Salaita, formerly Associate Professor at Virginia Tech.

Our collective dissatisfaction with the action taken by Chancellor Wise in no way consitutes our agreement with or support of the viewpoints expressed by Prof. Salaita in social media. Rather, it seeks to defend academic freedom as fundamental to the production of knowledge in a free and democratic society - otherwise there is no clear line between knowledge and propaganda, and the project of knowledge is irreparably compromised.

Professor Salaita was offered the position at the UIUC in October 2013, after a standard job-search based on peer-reviewing and the evaluation of his scholarly credentials. In August of 2014, as Dr. Salaita was in the process of moving to Urbana-Champaign to start working in a few weeks, Chancellor Wise chose to rescind the job offer without consulting the faculty. Since then, hundreds of academics from the US and the rest of the world, as well as numerous scholarly organizations, including the MLA and the ASA (for the statements of their respective Councils see here and here) have written to Chancellor Wise, pointing out that her action sets a dangerous precedent, unworthy of the liberal and democratic nature commonly associated with the idea of the University.

By first failing to provide an explanation for her action and in a subsequent message made public, Chancellor Wise has reinforced the news reported on numerous press and web sources: the decision to rescind Professor Salaita's contract was taken in response to his public statements on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this Chancellor Wise chose to terminate a professor's contract on account of his political opinions, which constitutes a clear assault on academic freedom, and is an administrative action that undermines the professional decisions made by the school's faculty and deans. Although Chancellor Wise publicly stated in her mass email communication with UICUC faculty and staff that Professor Salaita's dismissal was due to a perceived lack of civility, this concern has no place in a discussion on the violation of academic freedom, and is therefore irrelevant in the context of this statement.

As a global body of academics many of whom also serve as university administrators, the IASA Executive Council appreciates the intricacies of the hiring process. A number of our Executive Council members have greatly benefitted from the UIUC's commitment to the freedom of expression, scholarly enquiry, and international knowledge production and transfer. However, in this particular case, the Executive Council of the IASA hereby asks Chancellor Wise to restore Professor Salaita as Associate Professor in the Department of American Indian Studies. Failure to do so would result in seriously damaging the reputation of the institution she chairs.

The resolution for this statement was adopted in a vote of 15 for, 3 against, and 2 abstentions. As a body upholding freedom of expression, the IASA Executive Council recognizes the right to dissent and its expression among its members.

The International Association of Inter-American Studies (IAS), would like to promote research in the field of Inter-American Studies. Toward this end the association is announcing a competition for two awards, one for the best master's or doctoral thesis and one for the best article in Inter-American Studies completed since 2012. Submitted work does not yet need to be in print for it to be considered. Only work in Spanish or in English can be submitted. Each award carries a cash prize of 250 euros or 330 U.S. dollars.

To submit work to be considered for the award for best master's or doctoral thesis in Inter-American Studies completed since 2012, please send your thesis as a WORD or PDF file as well as an abstract of one page or less to the three jury members:

To submit work to be considered for the award for best academic article in Inter-American Studies completed since 2012, please send your article as a WORD or PDF file as well as an abstract of one page or less to the three jury members:

The deadline for submissions is June 10, 2014. The winners of both awards will be announced at the business meeting of the International Association of Inter-American Studies in Lima, Peru on August 7, 2014. Award recipients who are not present at that meeting will receive their award and prize by mail.

Please feel free to distribute this call for submissions to friends and colleagues.

Announcing the second year of "OASIS-Orientale American Studies International School":

Announcing the second year of "OASIS-Orientale American Studies International School," a one-week school that will take place at Università Orientale's conference center on the island of Procida, off the coast of Naples, May 4-10, 2014.

School Directors:

Donatella Izzo, Università di Napoli "L'Orientale" (Italy)

Giorgio Mariani, Università di Roma "Sapienza" (Italy); President of the International American Studies Association

Confirmed speakers:

Jonathan Arac, University of Pittsburgh (USA)

Susan Balée, literary essayist and book reviewer (USA)

John Bryant, Hofstra University (USA)

Carla Cappetti, CUNY City College (USA)

Jane Desmond, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA)

Ira Dworkin, The American University in Cairo (Egypt)

Giuseppe Nori, Università di Macerata (Italy)

Gordon Poole, Università di Napoli "L'Orientale" (Italy)

Bruce Robbins, Columbia University (USA)

Seminar leaders:

Jonathan Arac, University of Pittsburgh (USA)

John Bryant, Hofstra University (USA)

The school will run from Monday to Sunday. Every day will feature 2 plenary 45-minutes lectures from distinguished scholars in the morning, each followed by discussion, and afternoon sessions, which will be devoted to two presentations of participants' individual research projects, followed by discussion. Participants will be divided in seminar groups of about 10, each led by a scholar. The last day will be devoted to plenary presentation and discussion of participants' papers. Lunch will be catered and consumed on site, followed by a short break for rest and group conversation: we thus hope to build a friendly intellectual atmosphere and constructive dialogue among the participants.

We invite applications from doctoral students and recent Ph.D.s in American Studies, English, Comparative Literature, and related fields.

The fee for the School (covering registration, tuition, housing, breakfast, and lunch) is € 570 for the whole week. Accommodation will be provided in residences and B&Bs in downtown Procida (in double rooms or shared apartments, depending on availability; the fee covers a maximum of 7 nights, starting May 4). Participants are responsible for their own travel arrangements and expenses. Fees will be due on arrival or payable by national or international money order to the school administration. Depending on financial resources, one fellowship covering tuition and accommodation will be awarded. Preference will be given to applicants outside of Italy who are unable to get funding from their own institutions.

Applications will be accepted until March 15, 2014; successful applicants will be notified by April 1.

Applications should include:

-a current CV

-a two-page abstract of applicant's dissertation or book project, including a description of the section to be presented and discussed during seminars

-the name and contact of a referee

-information about the candidate's eligibility/non eligibility for funding from own institution

Please send all of the above materials (PDF or Word format) to oasis@unior.it .

OASIS is a project inspired by the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College, and aiming to create a similarly vibrant and generative institutional venue for the younger generations of American Studies students and scholars. OASIS is the first school of its kind in Italy; it is also the first such school to be held in southern Europe, and it is hosted by a university whose unique tradition of transnational dialogue with and focus on non-European cultures can be traced back to the eighteenth century. By establishing an American Studies school at "L'Orientale," and by convening it in a Mediterranean island such as Procida, we hope to create a venue that is attractive to American Studies scholars and students not just from Italy but from the Mediterranean area at large. We especially hope that our school may prove attractive to Americanist students from the nearby Arabic countries of North Africa and the Middle East. By bringing together scholars from different areas of the world and at different stages of their career, we hope to create the conditions for a productive, truly global dialogue in American Studies.

OASIS is generously supported by the Fulbright Commission and by Università di Napoli "L'Orientale." More info at:www.oasis.unior.it

Review of International American Studies (RIAS) â€“ Special Issue Call For Papers:

Review of International American Studies (RIAS) â€“ Special Issue

Call For Papers

â€œCultural Screenings: Re-Situating American Digital Practicesâ€

Print technology and the discovery of the new world have often played a major role in the construction of our visions of modernity by means of a mass-produced imagery set in motion by the increased circulation of goods, people, and ideas across transcontinental routes. Such characterization of â€œmodernity,â€ however, too quickly risks erasing the preexistent in ways that have become utterly familiar to the field of American studies: what is presented as new and innovative, has a history extending already from the conceptualization of the American continent itself as the â€œdiscoveryâ€ of a â€œnew world.â€

As Edmundo Oâ€™Gormanâ€™s notorious argument highlighted, the act of discovery would have to be recast as â€œa process of inventionâ€ (The Invention of America, 1961) The advent of digital technology and networked instantaneous communication, globally hyper-linked databases, elusive â€œelectronic elsewheresâ€ of cloud computing and augmented realities, in conjunction with the acknowledgment that many of the top computer manufacturers (Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Apple) are located in America, seem to create the premises for a renewed â€œinvention of America.â€ As the digital poet John Cayley remarks in â€œScreen Writing: A Practice-Based, Eurorelative Introduction to Electronic Literature and Poeticsâ€, â€œthe â€˜newâ€™ of new media, the â€˜hyperâ€™ and â€˜cyberâ€™, the â€˜digitalâ€™ and â€˜electronicâ€™, all these prefixes and the characterization they encourage have the effect of removing history and locatednessâ€ (605) in digital creative practices. As a consequence, the American environment too quickly risks appearing as a natural or neutral setting for electronic forms of expression.

Although digital humanists, new media scholars, and literary critics often examine electronic artefacts produced in America and characterized by diversity of topics, concerns, and approaches that can be reconnected with the multicultural diversity of the American continent, they seldom foreground the implications of their cultural characterization. Such tendency generates a need to identify the specific role American digital forms of representation are currently playing in articulating a post-national, postracial, post-ethnic, post-gender literacy in the electronic apparatus by conflating it in the universalizing interpretation of the post-humanist paradigm increasingly associated with technological culture. Our scholarly project aims therefore at reflecting upon a set of interconnected questions about how an integral understanding of the non-neutral characterization of the digital can be carried out from a great diversity of perspectives that transcend American geographical, historical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries.

To what extent are current digital theories developed in the US driven by a supposedly neutral attention to the medium? To what extent do the range of digital forms of expressions and the methodologies employed in their analysis happen to exceed the alleged paradigm of â€œmedia-specificâ€ analysis? And how might the formal and technological approaches to digital poiesis be ideally situated within a history of artistic practices related to (North) American culture?

We welcome paper proposals that explore cultural issues related to American digital and technological modernity from a fluid, heterogeneous, comparative, international perspective. In other words, contributions should deal both with the ways in which international perspectives can re-articulate the cultural logic of the digital and with the specific ways in which digital media studies and digital scholarship (tools, theories, practices) developed in the Americas can be regarded, re-thought, reconfigured, and even questioned from international perspectives.

We invite submission of abstracts (500-word length max) by no later than February 20, 2014. We expect final papers to be of 25-30 page length. Essaysâ€™ final versions should follow the RIAS Style Sheet.

Mauro Carassai is a PhD candidate at University of Florida. He holds a Masters of Arts in American Literature and Culture from University of Leeds (UK) and was a Fulbright visiting student at Brown University in 2007-2008. His research combines literary theory, Ordinary Language Philosophy, and digital literatures within the larger frame of American literatures and American studies. His scholarly work has been published in journals such as Culture Machine, LEA Almanac (MIT Press), and Digital Humanities Quarterly. He was a 2010-11 HASTAC scholar.

Leonardo Flores is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico: MayagÃ¼ez Campus and a 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar in Digital Culture at the University of Bergen. His research areas are electronic literature, poetry, and digital preservation of first generation electronic objects. His 2010 dissertation, Typing theDancing Signifier: Jim Andrewsâ€™ (Vis)Poetics is available for download at http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/10799. His daily scholarly blogging project titled I â™¥ E-Poetry (http://leonardoflores.net) contains over 400 entries to date. He wrote the entry on â€œDigital Poetryâ€ in the Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Humanities (forthcoming 2013). For more information on his current work, visit http://blogs.uprm.edu/flores/.

CFP: 7th Transatlantic Walt Whitman Seminar:

Invitation for Applications to the

7th Transatlantic Walt Whitman

Seminar

Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg

Bamberg, Germany

July 21 â€“ July 26, 2014

Founded in Paris in 2007, the Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association (TWWA) invites students, researchers, and Whitman enthusiasts to participate in its 7th annual Whitman Week, consisting of a Seminar for advanced students interested in Whitman and Whitmanâ€™s poetry, and a Symposium bringing together international scholars and graduate students. Previous

of Germanyâ€™s most beautiful medieval and baroque towns situated in a region known for its historical architectural sights, natural beauty and rich culinary culture.

TWWAâ€™s Mission

Walt Whitmanâ€™s Leaves of Grass remains a landmark of modern poetry and world literature.

Every year new editions of Whitmanâ€™s work are published in a variety of languages; an everexpanding

group of poets â€œreplyâ€ to him in their poetry; his poems are set to music and are quoted in films; he is invoked in the discussion of political and cultural issues, as well as of gender and sexuality; and he continues to be a huge presence in college and university curricula globally. In order to respond adequately to this international phenomenon, TWWA sponsors a yearly International Whitman Seminar, during which students from different countries come together for an intensive, credit-bearing Seminar taught by an international team of Whitman specialists.

Seminar Structure

In the morning classes, focusing on some of Whitmanâ€™s major poems and selections from his

prose, students will have an opportunity to confront Whitmanâ€™s books, share their readings of

key poems and clusters, and discuss Whitmanâ€™s attempts at a multilingual English, his

cohesive representation of human relations, and his workâ€™s international significance. In

addition, there will be afternoon workshops on the reception of Whitman in various countries,

as well as the translation of his poems into various languages, including German, French,

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Asian languages. (The specific readings that will be

the focus of the Seminar will be announced a month before the start of the Seminar.)

Faculty

The team of international instructors for 2014 will be: Betsy Erkkila: Professor of American

literary and cultural studies at Northwestern University; author of Walt Whitman Among the

French: Poet and Myth (1980) and Whitman the Political Poet (1996); co-editor, with Jay

Grossmann, of Breaking Bounds: Whitman and American Cultural Studies (1996); editor of

Call For Papers: Created Equal? The Irish Association of American Studies Annual Conference:

Call For Papers: Created Equal?

The Irish Association of American Studies Annual Conference

25 - 26th April, 2014

National University of Ireland, Galway

On the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the IAAS 2014 Annual Conference will investigate the notion of 'equality' in the American context.

The belief that "all men are created equal" was proclaimed self-evident in the Declaration of Independence. The phrase has been repeated and critiqued in the theatre of United States politics from Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address, Martin Luther King Jr. in his "I have a Dream" speech and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the 1848 Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. The historic struggle for equal rights in various forms belies the motto, and highlights Americaâ€™s complicated relationship with 'equality'.

Enacted on July 2nd, 1964, the Civil Rights Act "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin." The reality of a non-discriminatory society on these and other issues continues to be sought and fought on several fronts, as successive movements have challenged inequality in American society. Most recently, in June 2013, two key Supreme Court decisions highlighted the evolution of such movements: the defeat of the 1996 Defence of Marriage

Act sparked widespread celebration among equal-rights groups, yet just one day earlier the same court voted to overturn Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, thereby removing restrictions on nine southern states with a history of discriminatory practice in voting procedure. A Texas State Attorney immediately responded by declaring that Voter ID lawsâ€”laws which have historically been used to limit voters of colourâ€”would "take effect immediately."

At the IAAS Conference, 2014, we invite participants to explore America's strained relationship with the concept of equality and its impact on citizens of different race, religion, gender or origin.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

Historic struggles for equality

The Civil War

The Civil Rights Movement

Media representations: film and television

Musical expressions of marginalised peoples

American borders: North and South

The concept of â€˜melting potâ€™ America

Literature, poetry, novels, film and theatre exploring issues of equality

The Emory Elliot Award was created in 2011 to honor the memory of Professor Emory Elliott (1942-2009) in recognition of his contribution to American Studies. The award is given to an outstanding paper submitted for an IASA conference.

The 2013 EE Award recipient is Regina Schober, for her paper â€œThe World Wide Web: Oceanic Metaphors and Concepts of Knowledge in the Internet Ageâ€

Regina is Assistant Professor at the American Studies Department of Manheim University. Her teaching and research interests include literature and culture of American Romanticism and Modernism, Intermediality, the American Grotesque, and Network Aesthetics. Her current research project (habilitation thesis) examines the network paradigm in American literature and culture from the 19th to the 21st century. Regina is a member of the IASA Council.

IASA announces a special award to honor the memory of Professor Emory Elliott (1942-2009) in recognition of his contribution to American Studies. He supported an international outlook and encouraged young scholars and professionals both in North America and in other countries around the world, and served for many years on the Executive Council of IASA.

Starting in 2011, the award will be given to an outstanding paper submitted for an IASA conference. It will carry a special citation and an honorarium to help partially meet the expenses of travel to the IASA conference. The award recipient will present her/his paper at a special session of the conference. The award-winning paper and up to two other highly commended papers from the competition will be published in the proceedings of the conference, or in other resulting publications in print, or in RIAS: Review of International American Studies, which is IASAâ€™s refereed e-journal.

Eligibility:

Keeping in view how Prof. Elliott went out of his way to encourage young scholars and faculty in the early and middle stages of their career, the eligibility for the award is restricted to junior or mid-level professionals (within 10 years of obtaining their terminal degree) regardless of nationality, academic affiliation, or discipline.

Selection Rules:

1. A panel of judges will be appointed each year by the IASA Executive Committee to evaluate papers. The decision of the judges will be final.

2. The award will be announced prior to the conference.

3. IASA officers, executive members, and conference organizers are not eligible to compete.

Application Procedure:

1. Applying for consideration for this award does not obviate the need to submit a proposal to the regular Call for Papers. Candidates should submit their proposal to the Congress by the regular due date (APRIL 1ST, 2013) AND as well they should submit to the competition as noted below. PLEASE NOTE, only those abstracts submitted explicitly for the Emory Elliott prize will be considered for the prize and submissions for the EE Prize will not be automatically forwarded to the general congress programming committee. Therefore, it is the individual scholarâ€™s responsibility to submit to both to assure a place on the program. The abstract should be submitted to the organizers by the stipulated deadline for regular conference papers and to the prize competition by the same date.

2. To apply for prize consideration, send your name, contact information, abstract, and date and place of your terminal degree to: Giorgio Mariani (giorgio.mariani@uniroma1.it) by April 1st. The Prize committee will review all abstracts and will, by May 1st, request those which are highest ranked by them to then submit a full paper for consideration. If you are not contacted by May 1st, you may assume that your submission is no longer under consideration for the prize, but we hope you will still plan to attend the congress. All prize winners must be members of IASA by the time of the Congress if not before.

3. The assessment of the award will take into consideration the abstract as well as the written paper, paying special attention to its subject, structure and content.

4. The length of the final paper submitted should be 3,000 - 3,500 words. It should be sent along with a short CV (no more than 3 pages) and a statement from the candidate guaranteeing that it is his/her own original unpublished paper. Due date for those materials, (to be submitted only if requested to by the prize committee) will be May 15th, 2013. Send those materials to giorgio.mariani@uniroma1.it if requested to submit them.

5. The prize committee will then evaluate the full papers under its review and rank them, choosing one winner and, if they wish, suggesting that up to two additional papers be recognized as noteworthy and recommending that they be published in an IASA venue as noted above. The winner will be notified by the prize committee by June 30th.

The monetary part of the award will vary from year to year depending on finances, but it is expected that it will be in the range of the equivalent of at least 300 Euros. It will be the responsibility of the prize candidates to follow all of the stipulations above. The decision of the judges is final.

The Carl Bode-Norman Holmes Pearson Prize honors lifetime achievement in and contribution to the field of American Studies. Each yearâ€™s prize committee is instructed to consider afresh the meaning of a â€œlifetime contribution to American Studies.â€ The definitions of terms like â€œcontributionâ€ and even of â€œAmerican Studiesâ€ remain open, healthily contested, and thus renewed.

The 2012 prizewinner is Donald Pease, Dartmouth College.

IASA Conference - Optional Tour Documents:

Reach the top of "Corcovado" by rail. A modern Swiss-made cogwheel rail climbs through "Tijuca" Rain Forest to the top of the mountain (710 meters).

Emory Elliott Award for Outstanding Paper Presented at an IASA World Conference:

Description:

IASA announces a special award to honor the memory of Professor Emory Elliott (1942-2009) in recognition of his contribution to American Studies. He supported an international outlook and encouraged young scholars and professionals both in North America and in other countries around the world, and served for many years on the Executive Council of IASA.

Starting in 2011, the award will be given to an outstanding paper submitted for an IASA conference. It will carry a special citation and an honorarium to help partially meet the expenses of travel to the IASA conference. The award recipient will present her/his paper at a special session of the conference. The award-winning paper and up to two other highly commended papers from the competition will be published in the proceedings of the conference, or in other resulting publications in print, or in RIAS: Review of International American Studies, which is IASAâ€™s refereed e-journal.

Eligibility:

Keeping in view how Prof. Elliott went out of his way to encourage young scholars and faculty in the early and middle stages of their career, the eligibility for the award is restricted to junior or mid-level professionals (within 10 years of obtaining their terminal degree) regardless of nationality, academic affiliation, or discipline.

Selection Rules:

1. A panel of judges will be appointed each year by the IASA Executive Committee to evaluate papers. The decision of the judges will be final.

2. The award will be announced prior to the conference.

3. IASA officers, executive members, and conference organizers are not eligible to compete.

Application Procedure:

1. Applying for consideration for this award does not obviate the need to submit a proposal to the regular Call for Papers. Candidates should submit their proposal to the Congress by the regular due date (NOW EXTENDED TO JAN 20TH, 2011) AND as well they should submit to the competition as noted below. PLEASE NOTE, only those abstracts submitted explicitly for the Emory Elliott prize will be considered for the prize and submissions for the EE Prize will not be automatically forwarded to the general congress programming committee. Therefore, it is the individual scholarâ€™s responsibility to submit to both to assure a place on the program. The abstract should be submitted to the organizers by the stipulated deadline for regular conference papers (Jan. 5th) and to the prize competition by the same date.

2. To apply for prize consideration, send your name, contact information, abstract, and date and place of your terminal degree to: Ms. Anita Kaiser (arkaiser@illinois.edu) by Jan. 5th. The Prize committee will review all abstracts and will, by Feb. 1st, request those which are highest ranked by them to then submit a full paper for consideration. If you are not contacted by Feb. 1st, you may assume that your submission is no longer under consideration for the prize, but we hope you will still plan to attend the congress. All prize winners must be members of IASA by the time of the Congress if not before.

3. The assessment of the award will take into consideration the abstract as well as the written paper, paying special attention to its subject, structure and content.

4. The length of the final paper submitted should be 3,000 - 3,500 words. It should be sent along with a short CV (no more than 3 pages) and a statement from the candidate guaranteeing that it is his/her own original unpublished paper. Due date for those materials, (to be submitted only if requested to by the prize committee) will be March 15th, 2011. Send those materials to arkaiser@illinois.edu if requested to submit them.

5. The prize committee will then evaluate the full papers under its review and rank them, choosing one winner and, if they wish, suggesting that up to two additional papers be recognized as noteworthy and recommending that they be published in an IASA venue as noted above. The winner will be notified by the prize committee by May 1st.

The monetary part of the award will vary from year to year depending on finances, but it is expected that this first award will be in the range of the equivalent of at least 200 Euros. It will be the responsibility of the prize candidates to follow all of the stipulations above. The decisions of the judges is final.

CONFERENCE DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JANUARY 20TH:

Due to technical difficulties, the conference website will not be back online until after January 1st. To accommodate this delay, the new deadline is JANUARY 20th. Please contact Executive Director Sonia Torres, if you are still unable to register online. Thank you!

IASA members can receive a discounted, individual rate subscription to Comparative American Studies by clicking here. To purchase, please click on Subscribe, choose the IASA Membership subscription to CAS, and follow the purchase instructions to complete your order.

America with its multiple narratives, landscapes, languages, and experiences,â€¨ projects itself in time like a mosaic in movement: a mosaic of cartographies imagined over time andâ€¨ projected in the descriptions of travelers and scientists, in fiction and poetry, in the discourses of politicians andâ€¨ activists, and in the images of photographers, artists, and filmmakers.â€¨ The 5th IASA World Conference proposes to be a space for debating how different communities form senses of Americanness, originating from places of knowledge, politics, art, memory, andâ€¨ lived experience, where a possible "America" may be configured.

The 5th IASA World Conference proposes to be a space for debating how different communities form senses of Americanness, originating from places of knowledge, politics, art, memory, and lived experience, where a possible "America" may be configured."

SUBTHEMES:

â€“ imagination and images

â€“ memory and community

â€“ geographies of power

- time and Americanness

- routes and Â´scapesÂ´

â€“ traditions in perspective

â€“ possible modernities

Full instructions for submitting proposals will be posted here soon. Please help us spread the word by posting this announcement widely on listserves and distributing to your colleagues. We look forward to seeing you there!

All of you have no doubt been watching with distress the news of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. As many of our members work not only on the U.S. but also on the â€œAmericasâ€ more broadly, including the Caribbean, I wanted to send a message providing some information that I hope you will find useful.

Below I list the contact information of several highly respected and reputable relief organizations who are actively working now to help earthquake victims. Many are international, and some are located in the U.S. If you wish to help by donating, you may find these links useful.

But beyond the immediate needs, this may also be a moment for us to take this crisis as a stimulus to increase our knowledge about Haiti and about U.S.-Haitian relations if, like me, this is not an area of your current scholarly focus.

As you know, the U.S. has a long history of military intervention in Haiti. To gain a further overview of this part of U.S.-Haitian history, one starting point is the Wikipedia article below. Although Wikipedia is not always fully vetted as a source, it can in this instance serve as a starting point for further explorations of scholarly sources if you wish.

A second key issue is that of Haitian immigration to the United States, and the long standing presence of people of Haitian heritage in the U.S., with large communities in New York and Florida. Currently there are approximately 400,000 Haitian-born residents in the U.S., and nearly one million of Haitian heritage residing in the U.S. President Obama has just passed a resolution making it easier for those without government sanctioned residence to stay in the U.S. due to the devastation of the earthquake. For extensive information about patterns of migration from Haiti to the U.S. and U.S. government responses including interdictments of refugees at sea, see the link below from the Migration Policy Institute.

In addition, you may wish to check the web sites of the Haitian Studies Association below for further information. If any of you working on the Caribbean, or with academic colleagues there, become aware of specific ways that we as academics can help students and scholars in Haiti to rebuild after the immediate rescue needs in the days to come, please let us know.

At times like these when the most immediate needs are for food, medicines and emergency relief teams, we may feel powerless as academics to assist in any but monetary ways. But we can at least come forward to increase our understanding of the history of the area, of U.S.-Haitian relations, of the linkages between the histories of U.S. slavery and the slave revolts in Haiti, and of contemporary U.S. foreign policy towards Haiti. Those of us in French speaking Canada, and in France, may also have specialized knowledge of Haitian creole, or of Haitian literature to share. Perhaps our long term contribution can be in the form of increased understanding of the social, economic, and political histories that have resulted in Haitiâ€™s being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and among the most vulnerable to the infrastructure devastation attendant upon such a large-scale natural disaster.

CFP: INTERNATIONAL AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION FOURTH WORLD CONGRESS:

Call For Papers

INTERNATIONAL AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION FOURTH WORLD CONGRESS

Decoding American Cultures in the Global Context

SEPTEMBER 18-20, 2009

HOSTED BY Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China

The International American Studies Association (IASA) and the American Studies Center (ASC) at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) cordially invite scholars from all disciplines to participate in the 4th congress of the IASA, to be held from September 18th to 20th (Friday to Sunday), 2009 at BFSU, Beijing, China.

Congress Theme and Sub-themes

Recent changes in the flows of finances, people, and cultural products, often termed â€˜globalizationâ€™, have provided a new context for understanding the Americas, hence the theme of the 4th World Congress, â€œDecoding American Cultures in the Global Contextâ€. We invite contributions addressing the following sub-themes with reference to the U.S. and the Americas more broadly.

a) Critical understanding and reception of American cultures abroad

b) Impact of North/South American cultures on world cultures

c) Comparative studies of the Americas

d) â€œGlobalizationâ€ vs. â€œAmericanizationâ€

e) American studies abroad

f) â€œAmerican exceptionalismâ€: myth or reality?

g) Myths that Americans live by: literature, history, and culture

Guidelines for Submission and Presentation

* Proposals may be submitted in English for an individual presentation, or for a pre-constituted panel, by January 31, 2009. Proposals for workshops to be developed into pre-constituted panels must be submitted by Dec. 1st to be posted on the website (see below).

* For an individual paper, the organizer should submit the following: contact information of the organizer including email address, 3 keywords, and an abstract of no more than 300 words. Note any audio/visual equipment required.

* For a pre-constituted panel, the organizer should submit contact information of the organizer, 3 keywords describing the panel, and an abstract of no more than 300 words for the panel as a whole articulating how the papers go together PLUS contact information for each participant, and a brief abstract of no more than 300 words for each of those papers, along with 3 keywords for each. Indicate any audio visual equipment needed please.

* If you desire to submit a preconsituted panel, but need to find colleagues from other institutions and countries to participate in your panel, we offer the following option of proposing a WORKSHOP TITLE AND ABSTRACT. Send this, along with your contact information to the conference organizers (Prof. LiQikeng, below) BY DEC. 1ST. to be posted on the conference website. Individual scholars should then send proposals and contact information directly to you for your consideration. Once you have selected your panel members, submit as described above for pre-constituted panels, AND, in addition, send all non-selected papers along with their contact information, keywords, etc. to the conference committee for further consideration by the cut off date of January 31st. Those papers will then be considered for inclusion on the program as part of other panels if appropriate.

* Each proposal should indicate any audio visual needs at the time of submission. No panel should have more than four paper presenters, or three presenters and a commentator. For pre-constituted panels, priority will be given to those which include presenters from a variety of institutions/ geographical locations. The academic committee of the congress will evaluate the proposal on the basis of the quality of the abstract, its scholarly cogency, as well as its relevance to the congress theme, and notify the submitter of its acceptance by February 28, 2009. If the submission is accepted, an extended summary (about 800-1,000 words) shall be sent to the conference coordinators by May 31, 2009.

* Each participant will be given 15 minutes to present the paper, followed by 5 minutes for questions and answers. The conference will provide the necessary multimedia for presentations. When submitting the extended summary, please also indicate whether you will need to use multimedia, and if so, specify your exact requirements. We also welcome proposals for presentations that do not fit the standard spoken paper format, such as films/videos/performances, etc.

Post-Congress Publication

If you would like the congress committee to consider your paper for publication, please submit your full paper within one month after the conclusion of the congress to the organizers. The academic committee of the congress will review all the papers submitted and have the selected papers published by a reputable publisher in China. All papers are preferably around 8,000 words in length, complete with footnotes and a bibliography. For paper format, CMS is recommended.

Important Dates

* January 31, 2009: Proposal due (Dec. 1st workshop proposals due for posting)

Participants are expected to pay a conference fee of USD 150, which covers the academic program, congress documentation (final program and book of abstracts), all meals on conference days, and coffee breaks. The student rate is $75 U.S. If not paid in advance, fees are higher, but may be paid on-site, in which case regular participants pay $200 USD and students pay $100 USD. Hotels, meals on non-conference days, optional tours, etc are the responsibility of the participants themselves. Presenters must be members of IASA.

Hotel and tours

Special hotel rates for congress participants are being negotiated, and some on-campus student housing in dormitories will also be available at very reduced fees. Details will be posted on the congress website. Optional night-time activities such as attendance at performances and post-congress tours will also be available.

Contact Information

All proposals, summaries and other correspondence should be directed to congress coordinator Li Qikeng.

This special issue of the Review of International American Studies will consider the rhetoric, history, and culture surrounding the concept of â€˜Homeland Securityâ€™, recently prominent in the , and will examine its national and international projections. Since September 11, 2001, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, notions of national and international security re-entered US political discourse and practice in policies which extend to issues such as border protection, health and safety, immigration, citizenship and environment.

In light of the unashamed presence of the politics of security within academic circles--namely in the growing number of teaching programs and research funding promoting â€˜security studiesâ€™ in both US and European universities--the essays collected in this RIAS issue provide a pressing intellectual response to the current political and cultural climate of fear, exacerbated by the war on terror. These essays explore workings of â€˜securityâ€™ both as an official discourse and as an increasingly prevailing element in our culture and everyday life.

The issue starts by offering a truly interdisciplinary approach (historical, sociological and cultural perspectives) to widely-disputed concepts such as â€˜securityâ€™, â€˜terrorismâ€™, â€˜war on terrorâ€™ or â€˜the long warâ€™, and their presence within contemporary social and cultural life. The second section of the issue will investigate these concepts within the ongoing debate about literature and 9/11. The essays in this section will explore how, in relation to the attacks of September 11, literature can engage political, social and philosophical concerns which extend far beyond the limited paradigm of trauma theory which has dominated this topic.

Call for Contributions: Modernityâ€™s Modernisms: Hemi/Spheres:

Dear Colleagues,

As the next issue of RIAS - Vol. 3, â„– 1â€“2, Winter-Spring 2008 - is undergoing its final touches, it is our pleasure to announce the call for contributions for RIAS Vol. 3, â„– 3, Fall 2008, dedicated to: Modernityâ€™s Modernisms: Hemi/Spheres, "Race," and Gender. For details, please click here.